Wisconsin native, conservative critic of everything.
"Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God." ---G K Chesterton
"The only objective of Liberty is Life" --G K Chesterton
"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions" --G K Chesterton
"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling

Sunday, March 25, 2007

WFBuckley on Congressional Investigations

It is obvious that there are Democrats in Congress who want an opportunity to forage for crimes in the matter of the discharged U.S. attorneys. Nobody has come up with a description of exactly what crime might have been committed and should be investigated. What is being conjectured is that an industrious investigating committee armed with subpoena powers could come up with malfeasance of some kind.On the other hand, the investigative function of the legislative branch is of plenary importance, and should not be aborted by hypothetical immunities of the chief executive. Woodrow Wilson wrote in his classic book "Congressional Government" that Congress' investigative power was more important, even, than its legislative power. ...Abuse of Executive powers seems to pop up every so often. FDR did it, as did JFK (through his brother, the AG), Nixon, and Clinton. All those are well-documented examples.

I don't think GWB is a bad guy, and neither does WFB (see the link.) But Gonzales, and perhaps some of his subordinates, are not clean as the driven snow.

6 comments:

I agree, there is a problem with Gonzalez. I also agree that the investigational ability of Congress is important, if they are, at least, semi-honorable. Unfortunately, what we see with Congress now, is a witch hunt. The only reason they want to get Rove, et al. undr oath, is so they can maybe prosecute him for lying under oath. That seems to be their new modus operendi.

I'm sorry, but while I think it was silly of Bush II to have fired the U.S. Attorneys in question, as far as I know, the law is clear that he had a perfect right to do so. May I recommend that you read the following: